Regaining Your Spiritual Orientation (February 4, 2007) 2 Kings 3:1-27
2 Kings 3:1-27 Regaining Your Spiritual Orientation
This sermon comes originally from 2 Kings 3:1-27 Losing Your Spiritual Orientation from my blog.
Now Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years.
(2 Kings 3:1 NKJV)
A new time has come in the life of Israel. A new king reigns. His name is Jehoram, and people expect him to lead. But he is the son of Ahab, one of the worst kings in the life of Israel. Ahab tried to kill the prophets of God. Ahab lost his spiritual orientation. He was led astray by his wife to go away from God. This loss of spiritual orientation is what Jehoram learned from Ahab. The question comes: Will Jehoram stay lost? Or will he find his way and lead the people in the right direction?
And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like his father and mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he persisted in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin; he did not depart from them.
(2 Kings 3:2-3 NKJV)
We see here that Jehoram (also known as Joram) thinks he knows the way better than anyone else. He thinks he knows the direction for his people better than his own parents. He tried to change his direction by putting away things that his dad did wrong. His dad worshiped idols, and so Jehoram destroyed them. He is trying to change. But he can't change everything.
The phrase: "persisted in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel sin", is an important phrase. You see this phrase all over the books of 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles. It is a phrase that points to a problem. The problem is this: No matter how much the people want to change, they still think they know which way is best. They persist in following other gods. Jehoram had the problem. He thought that he could orient his nation in the right direction. He thought that putting away a few physical reminders would clear out the heart. He was wrong. He needs more help.
Before we go further in this chapter, there is something about orientation you need to know.
Orientation is the idea of getting your direction straight. It is very important for travel, and for leadership. Let me use an example of travel to help you understand orientation.
When I was in Boy Scouts, they taught us how to learn to get my direction straight. They taught us how to keep from getting lost, and how to get back to the right place when you do get lost. They showed us two tools to help us get our direction straight. One was a compass and the other was a map.
COMPASS
The compass is very important. It has parts that when you know its function, it helps guide your direction. When you know how to use a compass, you won't need a GPS satellite. You can go anywhere.
True North - now true north means exactly that - going to the North pole. True Norther is geographic north. It is aligned with the north pole. And true north is the standard that helps you know which direction to go. When you know where north is, then you can go south, west, east, or whatever direction you need.
But you also have to know about Magnetic North. Magnetic north is different from True North. Magnetic north exists because our earth is round. Our poles are magnetic and that changes some information. Magnetic compasses point to magnetic north. The exact location of magnetic north is lower than true north, and it is constantly changing position. Basically when you don't account for magnetic north, you drift in a different direction. When you look at a compass, there is a needle that point to magnetic north. Depending on where you are on the earth, it will be different from true north. If you are on the north pole, it will be exact. But the further you go from that pole, the further the magnetic north drifts from the true north. That would be hard if it there was not another tool to help you.
This tool is declination. You can adjust your direction to true north by calculating for this difference. This difference is called declination. Where we were in Texas, it was 7 degrees west. Which meant that you pointed your compass to the direction you needed and then turned it 7 degrees west. Now when you go from Point A to Point B and this distance is about a kilometer, declination won't make much difference - perhaps a millimeter or two. But if you go 50 kilometers and you don't account for declination, you will end up in the wrong place.
Now, you can find your direction with a compass. You can get anywhere in the world with a map and a compass. The only thing you have to be careful about is to stay away from magnets. This messes up your compass.
Now why did I go into this discussion about the compass. Because many people in this world go about their life without any spiritual orientation. This king went about his life without any spiritual orientation. We see that tested in the next couple of verses.
King Mesha of Moab was a sheep breeder. He used to pay the king of Israel 100,000 lambs and the wool of 100,000 rams, but when Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel. So King Joram marched out from Samaria at that time and mobilized all Israel. Then he sent a message to King Jehoshaphat of Judah: "The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?" Jehoshaphat said, "I will go. I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses." Then he asked, "Which route should we take?" Joram replied, "The route of the wilderness of Edom." So the king of Israel, the king of Judah, and the king of Edom set out. After they had traveled their indirect route for seven days, they had no water for the army or their animals. Then the king of Israel said, "Oh no, the LORD has summoned us three kings, only to hand us over to Moab."
(2 Kings 3:4-10 HCSB)
You learn how true your spiritual orientation is when difficulties come. As you read these verses, you find that God tested the spiritual orientation of the king. The king of Moab had a good relationship with Israel, but when the new king came to power in Israel, the king of Moab attacked. So Joram gets all of his resources together, all of his plans together, all of his friends together, everything he can muster to fight against this foe. He thinks he knows how to deal with this situation. He thinks he has the right orientation to solve this problem. But as time passes, he and his friends lose focus and direction. Notice that they go through the desert. As they march for seven days, they started to have problems. No water for the army or the animals. The king thought he knew his way. But he didn't. He got his people lost.
You know how it feels to follow someone who thinks he knows where he is going, but he gets you lost. It is frustrating. I said earlier that I learned these orientation skills, and we learned them every year for a refresher. But one time, we went to a camp. We planned to hike 5 miles and come back to camp. We pulled out our map and our compass and we planned the way. So we start on our journey. 2 hours later, we lose our orientation. It is a new place and we have never been there before. All of us did not know the territory. But there was one guy who insisted he knew how to get back to camp. His name was Clay. Clay got lost before. But this time, he insisted that he knew how to get to back to camp. But he had not compass and no map. We had the compass. But we trusted him. (Which was a very stupid idea.) Because we got lost. It took us 5 more hours to get back to camp. When we retraced our steps later, we realized we were only 20 minutes away. But we followed someone who did not know where he was going. He said he knew, but he had no idea. He acted like he thought he knew, and we screwed up by following him. Now fortunately for us, we were not far from food and water. But unfortunately for this group in 2 Kings 3, they were in a desperate situation.
When you lose your spiritual orientation, you are going to get yourself in desperate situations.
Of course, they did not know how to get out of this problem, so they finally called Elisha - a person with good spiritual orientation. He showed them what they should do.
But Jehoshaphat said, "Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?"
So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, "Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah." And Jehoshaphat said, "The word of the LORD is with him." So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
(2 Kings 3:11-12 NKJV)
Now the king of Israel never asked for good directions. He thought he could lead the people all by himself. But Jehoshaphat knew better. Jehoshaphat was the king of Judah. Jehoshaphat knew who to ask. He suggested that the king of Israel - Joram - ask Elisha. Elisha had good spiritual orientation.
So Elisha gave the people instruction on how to deal with the present problem. He showed a clear direction of how to get back from defeat. He showed how to keep from getting the people lost and defeated.
The Bible does not say how Elisha knew, only that he did know. The Bible implies that Elisha had the right spiritual orientation, because he spent time with God. He listened to God.
The story illustrates the fact that when people follow you, you have to have the right spiritual orientation. You need to know where you are going. You can't get your people lost - because that can be fatal. How do you keep yourself spiritually oriented in the right direction?
HOW TO GET A CORRECT SPIRITUAL ORIENTATION
1. Use a spiritual compass
True north is Jesus Christ. The compass is like the Holy Spirit, who leads you to Jesus and leads you to follow Him.
2. Use a spiritual map
The spiritual is the Bible. The Bible points to Jesus, and everything He wants you to do and not to do. The Bible is your life road map.
3. Make sure your spirit is declined to the Holy Spirit
Your spirit is at a different location depending on your lifestyle. Some people are in the wilderness of life. Some people are in the desert of life. Some people are in the ocean. Some people are far from true north, and some are closer to true north. But they always have to decline their spirit to the Holy Spirit. That means you always have to adjust yourself to what the Holy Spirit wants you to do.
Now it is amazing because when you follow true north (Jesus Christ), and you use your compass (the Holy Spirit), along with your map (the Bible), and you make the adjustments necessary, you will always find your way. You will also always be able to get where you need to go. You can get through any problem, and situation. But there are some things you have to be aware of, as you make adjustments.
4. Stay away from spiritual magnets that pull you away from God
You are to be led by the Holy Spirit, not some other spirit. These other spirits, are like magnets, which mess with the compass. Your compass can't help you because you are in the proximity of a magnet. A magnet is a force that pulls things to it. There are many spiritual magnets out there trying to take you off your course. They mess with your compass and they try to take you away from your relationship with Jesus Christ. Of course, magnets repel other magnets. So in the same way spiritually speaking, the Holy Spirit will repel other spirits. The Devil will try his best to pull you away like another magnet. When you look at your compass and it is spinning, you know that there is another magnet. You know that there is something else there to mess with your orientation and direction. So what do you do? You get away from the magnet that is making your compass spin. Then you can get the right direction.
5. Keep aware of the position of true north.
You always have to be focusing on Jesus. You have to keep looking to your spiritual true north. Otherwise, you will get lost, or you will not be able to handle the situation that comes your way. Keep your spiritual compass pointed to Jesus - True North. When you follow His direction, you will never lose your way.
